Main Panel Views
Main Panel Views refers to the different ways tracks can be displayed in the main panel for most nodes. A few nodes have specialized views which are covered on their particular pages. Configure Views At the top left of the main panel you will find a menu with view options. These are the four default views available: *Tracks *Album and Tracks *Album Covers *Artists Nodes of the library (everything listed under "navigation tabs" in Layout (1)) will remember their view settings (which view, displayed fields, sort order, etc.) separately. Changes made in one node will not affect another - with the exception that if you configure any of them to use a specific , then all nodes using that view will remain in sync. Filters will use the Music view, unless they are explicitly configured with a different view in their settings. Auto-Playlists retain their own views; Static Playlists all share the same view by default but can be configured to have different views. Panel Layout Overrides At the bottom of the Views Configuration window for each view (see below), there is a section that says "click to set overrides for the configured MusicBee layout." When you click, you will see the Panel Layout Overrides options. Any of the panels or elements you select here will be hidden when using that particular view (assuming they are displayed otherwise, of course). Custom Views Custom Views are selected the same way as the default views, but when you use a custom view it will remember its displayed columns, sort order, and other configuration settings independently from the default views. For instance, you might prefer to have different fields displayed for viewing classical music than pop music. You could create a "classical" view and apply it to a classical music filter or playlist. To save a custom view, use the "Copy Current View Settings To..." command in the Custom Views menu. You will be prompted for a name to save it under (or you can select an existing .mbv file to overwrite a previous view). It will immediately appear in your Custom Views list. To delete a custom view, use the same command, delete any of the view files that you don't want, and cancel or close the window without saving anything. You can make a custom view from any of the four default views, but you can't change which one is used once the view is saved; you'll have to make another by starting with a different default view. Changes are saved on the fly, so any change you make in one area of your library that uses a particular view will show up in all other places where that view is used. ;TIP: If you don't want to make changes to the default version of a view, save a custom view BEFORE you configure it. Otherwise you will have to undo the changes to your default view later. Customize Panel Just as for any of the default views, you can open the Views Configuration window from the panel menu at the top left by choosing "Customize Panel..." (the last menu item). It can also be opened from Panels Configuration by clicking the ... button where it says "files: Panel Settings", or from Preferences > Layout (1), under main panel settings, where it says "files: Customize Layout". For custom views, it will have a special tab called "Saved Views", with a list of custom views in a menu at the top. (If you opened this from the main panel window, it will be selected for you. If you opened it from Preferences, you will be able to select any view from a menu.) Which configuration options are available will depend on the base view used. Context Menus MusicBee has context menus almost everywhere. Right click on a panel or item, and you'll get a list of related options. The context menu for typical main panel views is an especially dense one. The menu shown at right is from Album & Tracks view, but other library views have the same general options, with some variation depending on where you click. Hotkey: Alt+Enter Activates the Play Now command as configured in Now Playing Preferences. Hotkey: Ctrl+Shift+Enter Forces the tracks to play next even when shuffling (but will add them after any other tracks added with the "Queue Next" command). Hotkey: Ctrl+Enter Adds the tracks to the end of the queue, or will queue randomly when shuffling. Hotkey: Shift+Enter Opens the Tag Editor for the selected tracks. Opens the album art in its own window, at full size or fit to the screen if the dimensions are larger than the monitor. WARNING: May overwrite existing artwork. Available when there is an image in your clipboard, so you can paste it as album art for the selected tracks. Uses settings from Tags (1). Only available in Artists View. Works like Paste Artwork, except that the artist picture is saved to the Thumbs sub-directory of the artist pictures location in Tags (1). Hotkey: Del Will prompt you as to whether you want to delete the tracks from the library only, or from the library and the hard drive. (To force files to be deleted from the hard drive, you can use the hotkey Shift+Delete. You will still get a prompt unless you disable it in Confirmation Settings.) Hotkey: Ctrl+Shift+T Opens the Auto-Tag by Album window and loads the selected tracks. WARNING: May overwrite existing artwork. Searches the artwork sources configured in Tags (2). The artwork search window will open unless you have unticked "confirm picture storage options when adding artwork", in which case the first image found will be automatically added based on settings in Tags (1). Play More * Turn on or Stop Auto DJ * Output To ** Offers list of available outputs (same as the "output" options in Player Preferences) * Play All Tracks Shuffled ** Will load all tracks from the current panel in the Playing Tracks list, in shuffled order. Does NOT activate Shuffle. * Play Artist ** As above, but plays all tracks from the selected artist. * Play Similar ** As above, but plays tracks by artists rated similar by last.fm. * Play Album Now ** As , but loads the whole album * Queue Album Next ** As , but loads the whole album * Queue Album Last ** As , but loads the whole album * Play Genre ** Plays all tracks with the genre of the selected track, in order * Play ''' ** Many other fields are also available in this list, but only if you opened the menu by clicking on top of them. Rating This is probably the simplest way to rate multiple tracks at once (you can also do it in the Tag Editor). '''Love and Ban are last.fm designations. They can be used without last.fm, but if you have activated the Last.fm Plugin for scrobbling, Loved track data will also be synced. Rating Album is the same menu, only it applies to the album rather than the track. All tracks from the album will be updated with the album rating (this does not affect individual track ratings). If you prefer, you can configure automatic album ratings based on the average of track ratings, in Tags (1). Add to Playlist * List of available static playlists ** You can hold down Ctrl to add to more than one playlist at once. * ' ** Creates a new static playlist from the selected tracks, in the Playlists node. Will prompt you to name the playlist. * External Playlist... ** Creates a new playlist file on your hard drive, of the format configured in Library Preferences. Will not be added to your library unless it's in a Monitored Folder. Send To * Auto DJ ** Starts Auto DJ based on the selected track. * Music Library / Audiobooks / Inbox ** Moves tracks to the selected node. (Moving to Music Library or Audiobooks will trigger Auto-Organize, if you have it enabled.) * Folder (Move) / Folder (Copy) ** Move/Copy Files to Folder will move all selected files to the chosen folder, retaining the file names but not any directory structure. ** Move/Copy Files to Organized Folder will open the File Organizer and load the selected files. ** You cannot move files which are auto-organized, but you can still copy them. * Folder (Replace) ** Replace the Selected File... ** Use the Selected File to Replace Another File... ** The file you replace will be deleted and the new file will be given the same file path, location in playlists, and tags as the deleted file. (Tags not shown in the Tag Editor may not be retained - make sure you configure any fields you want to keep as custom tags.) * Clipboard ** Copies tags to the clipboard as configured in Tags (2). This is NOT the same function as Edit > Copy Tags in the main menu. That command copies and pastes tags between files in MusicBee; this one creates text output that can be used with external programs. * ' ** The external audio editor configured in Tools Preferences will appear here. * Format Converter ** Opens the File Converter for the selected files. * File Rescan ** Scans selected files for changes. * Volume Analysis ** Hotkey: Ctrl+Shift+V ** Opens Analyze Volume for the selected files. * External Tool ** Any applications configured in Tools Preferences will appear here. Auto-Tag by Track * Identify Track and Update Tags ** Hotkey: Ctrl+L * Update Missing Artwork * Update Missing Lyrics * Update Tags Using Last.fm Tag Cloud * Infer and Update Tags From Filename Search *'Find Artist' ** Opens a search for the selected artist in the Search Results node. *'Find Similar' ** Opens a search for artists rated similar by last.fm in the Search Results node. *'Find Album' ** Opens a search for the selected album in the Search Results node (including all albums with the same name). *'Find ' ** Many other fields are also available in this list, but only if you opened the menu on top of them. *''Locate in Playlist'' ** Lists all playlists that contain the selected track. When you select one, it will take you to that playlist. *'Locate in Library' ** Will attempt to locate the selected track in the Music Library (for instance, if you are accessing it from a playlist) *'Locate in Windows Explorer' ** Opens the file location in Windows Explorer *'Locate in Computer Node' ** Opens the file location in MusicBee's Computer node